More Olympic$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

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Agent 47
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More Olympic$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Post by Agent 47 »

There was a show on TV over here called "The Gruen Transfer" which consisted of a panel of advertising industry professionals, hosted by a comedian, and it explored the grubby world of advertising and marketing in the media.

That show has now morphed into a four part special focusing on advertising in the Olympic$, and they have changed the name of the show to "Gruen Sweat."

Here is a section of transcript from Episode 1.
ABC-TV Gruen Sweat wrote: 00:33
HOST: G'day, I'm Wil Anderson. This is "Gruen Sweat," a four part series about the London 2012 Olympics, where the worlds most competitive brands come together to fight for glory and gold. Mostly gold. We'll meet tonight's panel in a moment, but first, brands have been part of the Olympics since the modern games began in Athens in 1896. Those games were partly underwritten by ads in the souvenir program for the likes of Kodak. I wonder what their slogan was back then? - "Coming soon, the camera."

The orgy of selling starts before the games even begin. Take the torch relay. Pure marketing. It's origins don't even date back to ancient Greece. They go back to these guys. [Image of Nazis shown]. Yes. Prince Harry's mates. But no, to 1936 and Berlin, where the torch relay run was staged as a PR exercise. It was meant to draw a line from Greek civilisation to the Third Reich. And it was all going well, until someone on the torch relay tried to run into Poland. What? Too soon?

Seventy five years later, the relay is still about PR for the games, but also for sponsors like Samsung, and Coke who get to gee up crowds along the route and reward their own staff. You might think the actual torch runners would be local heroes, but eight hundred slots are reserved for sponsors and admin. The torch relay is also about political spin, allowing village Mayors to get photo opportunities wearing giant penis costumes, and international pop stars like Will.i.am to indulge in product placement. Here he is thanking Coca-Cola for letting him run while Tweeting on his Blackberry torch phone. Yeah, they invited Snoop Dogg, but he used the torch to light a giant joint.

05:35
HOST: Let's follow the money. Eleven brands have paid $100 million each to be "World Wide Olympic Partners." Seven have handed over $63 million to be "London 2012 Partners." Six have spent $31 million to call themselves "London Supporters." Twenty-eight more have forked out $15 million to be "Official Suppliers and Providers."
They explore all of that sort of stuff for 45 minutes on TV on Wednesday nights, and then the video of each episode is available online for 14 days.

Episode 1 first broadcast - July 25, 2012
Episode 2 first broadcast - Aug 1, 2012
Episode 3 first broadcast - Aug 8, 2012
Episode 4 first broadcast - Aug 15, 2012

And due to overwhelming slackness on my part in getting around to posting this, there are currently only a few days left to download/watch Episode 1.

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/gruensweat/episodes/
"We can’t find a healthy brain in an ex-football player."

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2873539.htm
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